A Sauce is described as “flavourful relish or dressing or topping served as an accompaniment to food”. It is used to add moisture and flavour to a meal. A lot of people overlook the need for a recipe but once you have tried a few, you will realise what a positive difference it actually makes.
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food served on or used in preparing other foods. They are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavour, moisture, and visual appeal to another dish. Sauce is a French word taken from the Latin salsa, meaning salted. Possibly the oldest recorded European recipe is garum, the fish based recipe used by the Ancient Greeks; while doubanjiang, the Chinese soy bean paste is mentioned in Rites of Zhou in 3rd century BC.
Sauces need a liquid component, but some (for example, Pico de Gallo salsa or chutney) may contain more solid components than liquid. They are an essential element in cuisines all over the world.
Sauces may be used for sweet or savoury dishes. They may be prepared and served cold, like mayonnaise, prepared cold but served lukewarm like pesto, cooked and served warm like béchamel or cooked and served cold like apple sauce. They may be freshly prepared by the cook, especially in restaurants, but today many sauces are sold premade and packaged like Worcestershire, HP, soy or ketchup. There are sauces for salad are called salad dressing. A Sauce made by deglazing a pan are called pan sauces.
